Arlington, VA, June 27, 2000 — James F.X. Payne, senior vice president Government Systems Division for Qwest Communications International Inc., was chosen by Federal Computer Week as one of the "Top 100" for his significant contribution and impact in the federal IT market.

Payne received the honor at the Federal Computer Week Fed 100 awards banquet at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

An independent panel of eight distinguished judges from various government agencies, private industry, academia and related associations selected the 100 recipients by focusing particularly on the effort made to fix computers for the Year 2000 bug.

Winners were nominated by Federal Computer Week readers and selected for their contributions to the development, acquisition or management of federal IT.

"Qwest was a relative newcomer to government business, and Jim found ways to develop partnerships and build a reputation for Qwest in the government marketplace," said Jim Flyzik, chief information officer, U.S. Treasury Department, who was one of the judges.

Since his arrival at Qwest, Payne has expanded its government division to become an increasingly significant player in the market, and has scored major contract expansions and wins, including the Department of Energy's ESnet award, extended Treasury contract to modernize the IRS' data infrastructure and additional opportunities within the Department of Defense classified arena.

A long-time government marketing executive with Sprint and GTE before joining Qwest in August 1999, Payne's career spans more than 20 years in the communications and information technology marketplace. Payne spent four years at GTE before joining Sprint in 1986 as senior federal sales manager, and becoming assistant vice president for program and strategic marketing in Sprint's government systems division by 1995. He led its team that recently worn its FTS 2001 contract, having also been on the senior executive team managing the predecessor FTS 2000 contract for two years.

Guidelines for choosing Fed 100 winners include selecting winners:

for work done in 1999

who are part of an all-star team

for what they did, not their title

The awards are presented to "people who make it possible for technological advancements to run government more efficiently, deliver services less expensively and improve Americans' quality of life," according to Federal Computer Week.

Qwest's Government Systems Division was conceived in 1998 to provide data, multimedia and voice communications services to the federal marketplace using Qwest's fiber optic network is one of the world's most advanced systems. While making a name for itself in the IP technology arena in less than two years, the Government Systems Division is expanding its reach beyond government agencies into civilian agencies.